


A Matter of Trust

by sidewinder



Series: The Spaces in Between [10]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Community: slashthedrabble, Episode Related, Episode s06e16: Ghost, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 04:36:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13450683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidewinder/pseuds/sidewinder
Summary: Trust, once broken, can be very hard to rebuild.





	A Matter of Trust

“That’s great, El. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” Liv flipped shut her phone and slipped it in her pocket. She just had to get the champagne she’d left in her desk drawer for the occasion, and then she could meet them all at Casey’s office. With the guilty verdict for Connors and Alex back in town—even if only temporarily—there was plenty to rejoice this evening.

As she blew into the bullpen, she noticed two detectives still working at their desks.

“Hey,” she called to Munch and Fin as she rushed by. “The party’s about to get started to celebrate the verdict and Alex’s return. You two coming?”

John and Fin exchanged glances, not immediately answering her. “Actually, I think we’re going to take a pass,” John said. “But do send Alex our regards.”

“Okay,” she said, confused. “But…I would’ve thought you’d want to join us in welcoming her back.”

“Maybe you should’ve thought that we deserved to know she wasn’t dead in the first place,” Fin replied.

Liv flinched; their hurt feelings were understandable. She grabbed the paper bag with the bottles, closed her desk drawer and walked over to them. “Guys, I’m sorry. But Alex wasn’t even supposed to let _us_ know. She insisted on meeting with me and El before leaving with WitSec. We had to promise not to say anything to anyone.”

“So you didn’t trust that we could keep a secret,” John said. “Instead you were fine letting us believe for well over a year that she was dead. She was our friend, too.”

“We didn’t have a choice.”

“There are always choices, Liv,” Fin countered. “And consequences that come with them. Like knowing where you stand with the folks you thought you could trust without question. Now we’re not so sure about that.”

She wanted to argue that they were wrong, that no trust had been broken here. Yet, clearly, it had. And she had a celebration to get to, and nothing she could say tonight would make things better.

“I’ll tell Alex you were thinking of her,” Liv said as she left, feeling considerably less festive than she had been moments before.

* * *

“You okay?” Fin asked, startling John out of his thoughts.

“Yeah.” He sighed. “Just wondering if we were too harsh on Liv.”

“She needed to hear it. Stabler, too. I can move on past this, like I can move on past a lot of things. But only once I get the chance to speak up about bein’ done wrong, bein’ lied to.”

John nodded. They’d both been shocked by the news that Alex was alive, and that their coworkers had maintained a lie to them about it for so long.

Then again, hadn’t they been maintaining their own lie, for even longer now? Hiding their relationship so that they wouldn’t be separated as partners?

“Let’s go,” John said, putting down his file and standing up.

“To the party?”

“No. McGinty’s. Let’s have our own toast to the living.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Slash The Drabble prompt 472: Departure. I've always been bothered by how, in "Ghost", we never see Fin and Munch's reaction to learning that Alex is still alive—and that they weren't there for the aborted celebration in the final scene. So this is my take on what might have happened.


End file.
